Tag Archives: Romania

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER VIDIN, Bulgaria — The European Union hardly basks in popular favor these days. But in this isolated corner of the bloc’s poorest periphery, leaders and locals on Friday celebrated a tangible benefit of membership — a $340 million bridge spanning the Danube that should help strengthen trade and ties between two impoverished members, Romania and Bulgaria.

From the hipsters of Williamsburg in Brooklyn to the cinephiles of France, Romanian cinema is developing a global cult-like following that in 2010 should make Romania famous for something far more meaningful than Dracula, Ceaucescu and Nadia Comaneci. The so-called “New Wave” Romanian cinema is producing film-lovers’ films. They tell stark, lonely stories of micro-human-scale dramas, in impressive defiance of all the mega trends and commercial might of the global film industry, which tends to favour big stories, grand, sweeping tales of heroes, wars and disasters and the great processes of history.

The people of Romania are marking the 20th anniversary of the 1989 revolution which brought down communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Small commemorations have been held at cemeteries and sites associated with the revolution in several cities, including Bucharest and Timisoara. President Traian Basescu referred to more than 1,100 people who died during the revolution, as he was sworn in for a second term in office. Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed by a three-man firing squad, after a trial at a military base lasting only two hours on Christmas Day 1989. Matthew Brunwasser looks at how Romanians have been dealing with their recent past